1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to management of software in a distributed system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus to facilitate cross-domain push deployment of software in an enterprise environment.
2. Related Art
Software management presents many challenges to an administrator of an enterprise system. It encompasses many aspects of configuring and maintaining the enterprise system, such as software distribution, configuration management, and security policy management.
In smaller enterprise systems, it is feasible for an administrator to visit each computer within the enterprise to distribute the necessary software and create the necessary configurations. However, as the enterprise grows or spreads to multiple locations, it quickly becomes impractical for the administrator to visit each computer.
Administrators, therefore, have developed methods to remotely distribute software and configure the computers within an enterprise system. These methods, while advantageous, present their own set of problems. Managing a computer system from a central location can force the administrator to cross one or more untrusted domains to reach a trusted computer within a trusted domain.
Crossing an untrusted domain while remotely distributing software and managing a remote computer system provides a point-of-vulnerability to a person or entity with malicious intent. This point-of-vulnerability could allow fallacious substitute software packages, system configurations, and/or security policies to be substituted for the desired packages, configurations, and security policies.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus to facilitate cross-domain push deployment of software in an enterprise environment that does not have the problems identified above.